Prayers and a Father's Love

    I learned very recently of a family who is in Tobi's country, adopting 2 older boys right now. They are afraid that the adoption of one of the boys will not go through. In his country, older children have to give consent before they can be adopted. He has lived 7 years in a place that has never given him the love of a family, and he is refusing to give his consent. There is evidence that this boy is being mentally and emotionally abused in his orphanage. There is a family that have given their all to get to him and want nothing more than to love him. And yet, he is so terrified, he is refusing to allow it. As much as this family wants to sweep him up and bring him home, they will have to leave him behind if his mind has not changed by tomorrow. As I have been praying for both this couple and for this little lost boy this weekend, I saw a parallel to our God. Many places in scripture, God is compared to a father.  Oh how He longs to shower us with His love and to bring us under His wing and into His family. And yet, He has given us freewill and will not force Himself onto us. He wants us to see the love and good that He has for us and to draw close to Him. He wants us to say yes, be my Father, be my Lord. And yet, so many are so hurt, so afraid that they refuse. Maybe because they do not believe they are worthy. Maybe because life and the enemy has  so abused them. Maybe because they just can't fathom that His love could be real. I see the heartbreak that this family is going through, facing the possibility that this child they came to save refuses to be rescued. God longs for us in this same way. All we need to do is to give up and accept His love. We do not need to do anything at all, He has already done it. He has paid the price with His life, and is only waiting for us to stop fighting and risk His love. Would you join me in praying for both this little boy and his family tonight? I will not put their names out there, but God knows who they are. They will be in court tomorrow and whatever the outcome, they will need to be covered in prayer.

We Are Official

Today an amazing thing happened! A thing that seemed so impossible when we opened the email on October 18th with a list of documents that we would need to complete our dossier (our paperwork for Tobi's country). I cried, closed the computer, and ignored it for at least 24 hours. Everyone of those hours, asking God if He was sure this is what He wanted. It seemed so overwhelming. Today, just 3 months later, our dossier was officially preregistered to be submitted next week! Wow!!!! It seems almost impossible. Isn't that how God works, though?!!! Here we are, beginning to plan our trip and getting our home ready for our new sons to come to! I am not going to lie, this next part of our journey terrifies me. I am so thankful that God has allowed me to see Him working on every piece of this puzzle so far. It is so much easier to take the next step, knowing that He is active in this thing. I am not expecting an easy journey from here, in fact I am pretty sure it is going to be incredibly hard. But I know that God will be there, every single step of the way. We will do what He has called us to do. We will do it with joy, knowing that at the end of this journey, we will not only have 2 beautiful new sons, but we will be closer to our God. Many people have told us how great and strong we must be to do what we are doing. No, we are not. Not even close. But our God is! And so, we cling to Him, and we follow Him. I am over the moon excited to bring our boys home! I am even more excited to know God in a way that we never have before.

Big News All Around!

Look at our sweet Tobi boy!!!!! Can you believe how great he looks! Those chubby cheeks do this mama heart so good! I cannot wait to kiss those sweet cheeks! So much good news!

Our paperwork is altogether in Tobi's country!!!! They are checking it twice, translating it and getting it ready for submission to his government! It should be submitted toward the end of next week!!! Can you believe that? About 4 weeks after our paperwork is submitted, we will begin looking for an email invitation to visit Tobi's country... to meet our sons! No, that is not a typo!!!! We got some news this last week!

That little guy up in the right hand corner is the 7th little Q!!!! We have known for quite a while that our team in Tobi's country were working on getting another baby boy in Tobi's orphanage cleared for adoption. We told God that we would follow His lead. If this little guy was cleared before we got there, we would not leave him behind. Many things happened to prolong our homestudy, remember that MI state child abuse clearance? Once it was done, it was too late to get our paperwork in before the Christmas holiday. We could have been disappointed, but we knew God was working! And He was! Just last week, we were informed that this sweet baby boy has been cleared for international adoption! We have eagerly waited to see his sweet little face while the ladies at Reece's Rainbow got the last of the kinks all ironed out! I got a call from our stateside coordinator today when she sent me this picture of our 7th child!!!! His name will be Josiah Matthew Quiambao!!! He is living in the same orphanage as Tobi. They are the only two little ones currently available for international adoption in their orphanage. Marvin says that might be a good thing :) We don't have room for more... right now anyway.

Here We Go

We just received word that the government in Tobi's country is accepting paperwork in just 2 short weeks! They are opening back up a month early to accept submission of dossiers! We had hoped for this, but with everything going on in Russia, were truly not sure that it would actually happen. Today the request was signed and registered to make it official! We are one month closer to rescuing our boy from hopelessness to bring him into our family! What does this mean? It means that in the next week we are scrambling to get the last piece of our dossier in Tobi's country to get translated and then ready to be submitted as soon as it is possible! There are no given dates at this point, there is no such thing as a true timeline. That said, we have watched the last several families and have somewhat of a pattern hat we can unofficially go on. If we are submitted when we hope to be, we will be granted a travel date by around mid February. Typically there is 1-2 weeks notice before our actual travel time. That given, we are planing to travel mid to end of February. That leaves us less than 2 months to get just under $20,000. Wow, that is scary!!! We have seen God move in amazing ways already. I have been amazed at the generosity that has been shown to us. Every bit has meant so much to us. It is not easy for us to ask for help. But we cannot do this on our own. This is for our boy. We need to raise his ransom and we do not have much time to do it. Would you donate to Tobi's grant? We receive 100% of all money given through the donate button on the right side of this blog. It is tax deductible. You have 1 more day to get it in for this tax year. Please consider what you might be able to give. I am not sure how God is going to meet this need, I just know that we must be faithful. If you have already given, please know that it means the world to our family. It means the world to a little boy that has NO idea what family means. It means a future and a hope that he would not have without a family. We have been blown away by the many people who have given already. It is strange to be on this side of the giving, but God has truly blessed us.


2 Corinthians 8:8-14

⁸ I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. ⁹ For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

¹⁰ And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. ¹¹ Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. ¹² For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.

¹³ Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality.¹⁴ At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. 

Merry Christmas

As we celebrate our Christmas Eve and ready things for morning, I cannot help but think of our Tobi tonight. A lot. We sat behind a family with a baby boy that looked about Tobi's age and as everyone sang Christmas carols, it was all I could do to hold myself together. I looked at that sweet baby boy and wondered if anyone will hold our boy tomorrow. Will someone whisper in his ear, tell him that he is loved? Sadly, I think he will probably lay in the same crib as every other day. It is so hard to be happy knowing that he is spending his first Christmas alone. I am so thankful that we found him while he is so young. So many others have spent many Christmas' alone. My heart hurts for them. I am thankful that this time next year our Tobi will be home. He will be getting matching jammies and there will be another candle on Jesus' birthday cake. His stocking will hang with the others and there will be a few more gifts under our tree. Better yet, there will be a little boy in my arms to keep quiet in the Christmas Eve service. As you celebrate this joyous season surrounded by friends and loved ones, would you do me a favor? Will you think of our Tobi and the many other children all alone and say a prayer for them?

Joy to the World?

Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. The colors, the lights, the happiness, the cuddly jammies, giving gifts... I love it all. But this year has been very different. I am struggling. Badly. For a couple of reasons. I am torn. Torn between being present and active in our family, making memories, experiencing the magic of this season with my children and knowing that one of our children is a half a world away, unaware that we are out here, doing our best to get to him as quickly as possible. He is spending his very first Christmas in the same crib that he has spent everyday of his life. It is as if someone were to take one of my 5 and tell me they will keep them in a room and give them the minimum they need to survive for an undetermined amount of time, just go on with your life. I would not be expected to just be okay with that. I never understood how hard this part would be. I just did not understand the reality of the love felt for a child one has never met. I cannot explain it myself, I only know it is true. I am trying to trust God and find a balance. I have been blessed with 5 amazing children. They know genuine from fake, and so things are a little different this year. We are surrounded by pictures of orphans, we pray for them by name. We are focusing much less on the giving and getting of Christmas and much more on doing and caring. I cannot bring every one of these lost ones home. Oh how I wish we could. What we can do is make sure that they are prayed for and cared about. We will build the gingerbread house like we do every year. This year we will pray for those children that do not have homes as we do it. We decorate the tree, but along with all the regular ornaments, there are photos of children that we as a family are praying for. We will go Christmas caroling as we do each year. This time we will try harder to focus on those we visit, instead of just the fun we have with our friends. We will be together, our hearts broken for those that are alone. I think that might be what Christmas is supposed to be about. He came to seek and to save the lost. That IS the JOY.

It Is Finished...Almost

Here it is. THIS is our dossier (pronounced doss E ay).

 This is the paperwork that we have spent the last 2 months gathering, notarizing, and getting apostilled. I remember opening that first email from our stateside parent facilitator that contained the list of documents to complete this. By the time I opened the three attachments full of instructions and documents we would need, I was in shock. Truly, I closed the email and sat there stunned. We were sure that God had called us to do this. We were NOT sure that we could pull it off. I fell back on God's promise to give us the grace and peace that we need when we needed it. I will not lie, there were times I wanted to scream and cry and pull my hair out. But, even then, God was faithful. We did one thing at a time. Not long after we really dug our feet in, determined to get it done, we realized that it was not as bad as it looked. We were glad that our initial fears did not turn us away from our calling. I am so thankful that we had Tobi to work toward. God gave me a fierce love for our little boy almost immediately. I did not expect it nor did I understand it. Looking back, I think that love is what drove us on. So, this is it. The majority of it is headed to another family that will be traveling to Tobi's country to meet their own little one. A few pages had to be corrected but are ready to go to the next family that travels. So, what comes next? We are waiting for USCIS to issue an appointment for fingerprinting. As soon as the fingerprints clear, we should have our approval within 48 hours. That is all that we are waiting on at this point. It will be apostilled and will be on its way to Tobi's country as soon as we have it. Once the team there has the complete dossier, they will submit our request to adopt to Tobi's government. We will then wait to be given an appointment to meet with them ourselves. At that appointment, we will learn about our boy. His birth name, true birthdate, his birth story, his family history, his medical files. At that time, we will accept his file and be given permission to meet him in person. Once we meet him, we can officially accept him and begin the process of his adoption. We will stay in his country usually about 10 days (sometimes a bit longer) until we are granted a court date. He will remain in his orphanage during this process, but we will be given visitation. Typically 1 hour morning and night, although it is left to the director to set those times. We will be granted custody at the court date, but there is a 10 day wait before it takes effect. During that time, we will probably come home. We will take that time to get things ready for him and get ready to bring him home. One or both of us will go back at the end of the mandatory wait to chase paper. It will then FINALLY be gottcha day. We will get him out of there once and for all. It will take a few more days to gather what we need to bring him into the US, but he will remain with us during that time.